GB face Japan in penultimate game of tournament

Great Britain’s senior mens team are set to face Japan later on today in their penultimate game of the Division 1A World Championship tournament in Budapest.

So far in the tournament GB have struggled against their opposition and are yet to secure their first points of the tournamnet following a 4-2 defeat to Hungary, 5-0 to Kazakhstan and 5-1 against Italy on Wednesday. Their rivals today are Japan who currently occupy 4th spot in the table after their sole victory against Korea on Wednesday.

GB started the tournament in high spirits and pushed Hungary all the way in their opening game on Sunday night; however they have been left in deep water following the tough defeats to Kazakhstan and Italy. Japan have also struggled so far in the tournament with defeats also to Kazakhstan and Italy and their only victory coming against the lowest ranked side Korea.

GB will also end the tournament tomorrow afternoon when they face Korea. As with GB themselves and also Japan, Korea have struggled to match the pace of the top 3 in the group, however were able to record an impressive shoot-out victory against Hungary on Monday. They currently sit just above GB in the group standings with 2 points and GB will surely be looking for two victories from the final games to make the jump above at least one if not both of their rivals.

Today’s game will once again be shown on Premier Sports live on Sky with a face-off time of 16:00. Tomorrow’s final game against Korea starts at 12:30.

GB v Kazakhstan Updates – Period Three

Kazakhstan stretched their advantage further in the third period with the game ending a disappointing 5-0.
Inside the opening 2 minutes Vadim Krasnolobodtsev scores making it 4-0. With less than 10 minutes remaining Manchester Phoenix defenceman was called for hooking on a breakaway attempt and a penalty shot awarded. However Stephen Murphy was up to the task and denied Savenkov.

Less than 20 seconds later and Jonathan Weaver was also called for hooking gifting Kazakhstan a 5-on-3.
Just over a minute into the powerplay Yevgeni Blokhin scored the final goal of the game gifting Kazakhstan 5-0 victory and their second of the tournament.

GB v Kazakhstand Updates – Period Two

With the period looking like it would remain scoreless, with chances for both sides, Kazakhstan scored with 8 seconds remaining to lead 3-0 going into the third and final period. Roman Savchenko added to the first period strikes to give Kazakhstan the advantage.

GB v Kazakhstan Updates – Period One

In the second game of the World Championships in Budapest GB face Kazakhstan. However after the opening 20 minutes GB are 2-0 down with a big performance needed to get back in the game!!
Despite early penalty trouble for Kazakhstan they took the lead through Konstantin Romanov at 17:42. Just 19 seconds later and it was 2-0 when Ilya Solarev beat Stephen Murphy to double the lead.

Team GB to be shown on British Television

For the first time in its history the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will be broadcast live on TV in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The 2013 World Championships, including Great Britain’s Division 1A games will be shown live on the Premier Sports channel. 

Premier Sports, is operated through Britain’s BSkyB platform (SKY), under channel #428. Infront Sports & Media, is the marketing partner of the IIHF and they secured the agreement with Premier Sports ahead of this week’s tournament in Hungary which will show GB’s games live and in full length. In addition to showing GB’s games live, they will also broadcast 20 games of the 2013 Ice Hockey World Championship taking place in Stockholm and Helsinki between 3rd and 19th May.

Premier Sports, is currently only available by subscription, and is received through satellite in over 10 million homes. The channel is no strange to Ice Hockey coverage, having broadcast games from the NHL, and the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship will slot nicely into it’s ever expanding sports portfolio.

It is a very clever move by the IIHF to bring both Team GB’s games, as well as the 2013 World Championships, into the British market. Although the coverage will only be available via Premier Sports satellite subscription channel it is a step in the right direction to raise the profile and interest in Ice Hockey in Britain. As shown with the 2012 summer Olympics in London, the nation get behind to support their national teams, even in sports they may not have a clear understanding of. Regardless if anyone knows what Ice Hockey is or how it is played, if viewers see that Team GB are competing they will most likely turn on and sit-back to watch.

There are only a few nagging issues in regards to the format of the deal; being only through a satellite subscription channel, you may lose the general viewing audience, with the potential that the only viewers will be those that know of the sport or already have the channel and kick back to watch. But as I said it is a step in the right direction to bring Ice Hockey to the forefront of sport in Britain.

The viewing schedule for the games is as follows;

Game 1 (14/04/13) – GB v Hungary (6:30pm)
Game 2 (14/04/13) – GB v Kazakhstan (3:00pm)
Game 3 (17/04/13) – GB v Italy (3:00pm)
Game 4 (19/04/13) – GB v Japan (3:00pm)
Game 5 (20/04/13) – GB v Korea (11:30am)

Hand names 22 man squad for World Championships

Great Britain’s Head Coach Tony Hand has named his 22 man squad for the World Championships in Hungary later this month; showing minor changes to the roster that made the trip to the pre-olympic qualifers in February. A strong 41 man squad was announced just over a week ago, with notable inclusions from English Premier League (EPL) teams; two of which have made the final cut.

Four changes have been made to the team that was originally selected for the final Olympic qualifers in Latvia in February. Steve Lee, who was replaced by Jonathan Weaver for Latvia due to injury, has been included from the start. Fellow defender, Luke Boothroyd, has also been included fresh from his play-off winning services for the Manchester Phoenix. Forwards Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils) and Aaron Nell, of the EPL Swindon Wildcats, have also made the cut in the 22 man squad.

Luke Boothroyd has been included in the team to fly to Hungary. Photo by David Steadman

Unfortunately Ben O’Connor has been denied release from his KHL club to attend the tournament; whilst Rod Sarich, Mark Garside and Jason Hewitt will also miss out.

GB have began their training camp this week, following the EIHL and EPL play-off finals weekend, before heading out to Hungary on Friday.

They will face the hosts in the first match of the Division One – Group A tournament. The teams play a single round-robin series. Each teams plays each opponent once and the winner of the event will be promoted to the Top Division. The last-ranked team will be relegated to Division I Group B.

Coach Hand said: “All games are tough at this level and they will be five difficult games for us throughout the tournament.

“We are taking a strong team away with us, even though we have key guys out. I would love the team to come away with a medal.
“We are looking forward to the three-day camp now and get ourselves prepared for an important week.”

Netminders

Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays)

Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants)

Defencemen

Danny Meyers (Sheffield Steelers)

Dave Phillips (Belfast Giants)

Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils)

Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers)

Steve Lee (Nottingham Panthers)

Luke Boothroyd (Manchester Phoenix)

Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers)

Forwards

David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers)

Robert Dowd (Troja-Ljungby)

Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan)

Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils)

Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils)

Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers)

Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers)

Greg Owen (Basingstoke Bison)

Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants)

Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats)

Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers)

Colin Shields (Belfast Giants)

 

The schedule of the games are as follows;

14th April@19:30 – Hungary v GB

15th April @16:00 – GB v Kazakhstan

17th April @16:00 – GB v Italy

19th April @16:00 – GB v Japan

20th April @12:30 – GB v South Korea